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Tuesday, July 28, 2015

On a wondrous planet of telepaths and swordsmen, nonhumans and ancient mysteries, a

technologically advanced, star-faring civilization comes into inevitable conflict with one that has pursued psychic gifts and turned away from weapons of mass destruction. Darkover offers many gifts, asked for and unexpected. Those who come here, ignorant of what they will find, discover gifts outside themselves and within themselves. The door to magic swings both ways, however, and many a visitor leaves the people he encounters equally transformed.

Deborah J. Ross: Tell us about your introduction to Darkover. What about the world drew you in?

Jeremy Erman: I started reading Darkover novels in the late '90s when I took off a few years between high school and college. I loved the combination of fantasy and science fiction, and the fact that I could read the novels in any order I wanted. The Ages of Chaos especially appealed to me because they were more "fantasy" than "science fiction," but I was also fascinated by the origins of humans on Darkover, and wanted to know what happened to the original settlers. I searched for months until I found a copy of Darkover Landfall. It answered some of my questions, but not all of them!

DJR: What inspired your story in Gifts of Darkover?

JE: Ever since reading Darkover Landfall, I was fascinated by how quickly the original settlers abandoned Earth technology, and wondered if any of them tried to hold on to it even after most people decided it couldn’t be done. It occurred to me that decades after landfall there might still be people who remembered Earth, and their memories would essentially be the only records of Earth technology and culture on Darkover. What would such a survivor do with this knowledge, and how would someone born and raised solely on Darkover react to such an “alien” mindset?

Saturday, July 25, 2015

My short story, "The Hero of Abarxia," (When The Hero Comes Home 2), will appear in the For Want of a Horse. The editor is Evey Brett.

forthcoming anthology from Lethe Press,

Here's the Table of Contents:

Gentle Horse, by Cynthia SeelhammerGriffen, The High Flye, byJames BaldwinThe Black Horse, a Celtic Folk TaleThe Rocking-Horse Winner, by D.H. LawrenceThe Horse of Brass, by James BaldwinThe Goose Girl, by Jacob and Wilhelm GrimmThe Winged Horse of the Muses, by James BaldwinHorseman, by Renee Carter HallJack Pumpkinhead and the Sawhorse, by L. Frank BaumThe Eight-Footed Slipper, by James BaldwinDapplegrim, a Norwegian Fairy TaleThe Horseman in the Sky, by Ambrose BierceSensitive, by Evey BrettThe Fox and the Horse, by Jacob and Wilhelm GrimmAl Borak, by James BaldwinA Horse Story, by Kate ChopinIvan and the Chestnut Horse, a Russian Fairy TaleThe Goblin Pony, a French Folk TaleRed Dust and Dancing Horses, by Beth CatoThe Dun Horse a Pawnee Folk TaleThe Magician's Horse, a Greek Fairy TaleThe Devil and Tom Walke, by Washington IrvingThe Hero of Abarxia, by Deborah J. Ross

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

I'll be head down into revisions of Thunderlord for a while, but on my morning walk, I noticed the blackberries are ripening. So here's a post from a few years ago, Enjoy!

It's blackberry season, and as is my custom at this time, I went out this morning to pick from the brambles along our little country road. (We have our own patch, but the berries ripen later because it's in a shadier place.) I try to do this early, when it's cool and I'm not having to squint into the sun for the higher branches. As I picked, I thought about the story I'm working on (and currently stalled on 2 scenes-that-need-more), and also writing in general.

Blackberries are tricksy things. They can look ripe from where I stand, but turn out to be all red at the base. Sometimes I can tell the moment I touch the berry -- it's too firm and too tightly attached to the stem. I have to be ready to give up on what looked like a great prospect and move on. When I'm in the flow of picking, it seems I don't even have to think about this. Isn't this like a story that seems promising but doesn't yet have the necessary depth? Occasionally -- well, more than occasionally -- my mind gets set on "this berry gets picked" and I force the issue. I'll glare at the red parts and either pop the berry into my mouth ("for private reading only"). Berries that are almost-ready go well in oatmeal. I freeze quarts and quarts of them for winter breakfasts. They're too sour on their own, but they blend well, adding pleasantly tart notes. That's not unlike taking several different story idea, none of which can stand on their own, and setting them at cross-purposes to make a much more interesting tale.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

First draft of Thunderlord is done! That's the good news. The um, challenging news is that it's 220,000 words long. Way too long, even for DAW. I have embarked upon the excision of flabby prose, tedious subplots, and extraneous characters.

Friday, July 17, 2015

It's been a while since I've posted about my writing progress on the next Darkover novel, a sequel to Stormqueen. I'm currently fine-tuning the penultimate chapter and embarking upon what I presume will be the final one. It's turning out much better than I hoped, but perhaps that it because the "how I feel about the work in progress" swings like a pendulum from "the worst drek ever penned" to "wow, this is really good!"

I should have time to do another pass, making sure that a character who can't knit in chapter 25 isn't teaching someone else in chapter 13. Then it goes off to the MZB Literary Works Trust for approval while I am out of commission during my cataract surgery (one eye, then the other 2 weeks later).

My husband and I have been committed to showing our son positive examples of differently gendered people in literature. We’ve read the following books countless times and always encourage an open dialogue about what it means to be a boy, a girl, a human. More importantly, we use these books to teach about love, acceptance, equality, empathy, and the beauty of diversity. Read these books to your child to help them better understand their gender identity and be a better friend to the boy who has long hair and wears a skirt or the girl with the short spiked hair who only wears pants.

Velociraptor would have been a feisty little feathered poodle from hell, not a drab scaly reptilian monster like in the Jurassic Park films,” added Brusatte, who is a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences. He co-authored the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, with paleontologist Junchang Lüof of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. The scientists came to their conclusions after studying the near-complete and exceptionally well-preserved skeleton for Z. suni, which lived around 125 million years ago in what is now the Liaoning Province of northeastern China. Like Velociraptor, it was adromaeosaurid -- fast-running, feathered, sickled-clawed dinosaurs that were close relatives of birds. Z. suni weighed around 25 pounds and, most strikingly, had short, 14-inch-long arms covered with long feathers that looked like quill pens. Today’s eagles and vultures sport a similar type of feather.

Images of Pluto from New Horizons are in the news, but we're continuing to discover new things about Mars, including that its crust may contain silica-rich rock typical of continents.

With the help of a rock-zapping laser, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has detected Red Planet rocks similar to Earth's oldest continental crust, researchers say.This discovery suggests that ancient Mars may have been more similar to ancient Earth than previously thought, scientists added.

Mostly, I try to keep this blog a politics-free zone (with a few exceptions that touch on my personally, like the death penalty). But occasionally a bit of news tickles my fancy so much, I need to share it:

The Board of Supervisors in Santa Cruz County, California, have taken a bold step. The County has decided that they will not do business, including investment services or bond issuances, with five major banks that the Justice Department found to be associated with felonious acts in May of this year.

Monday, July 13, 2015

Unlike any other dinosaur, this creature’s skull is ringed with bone protrusions that curl inward toward the animal’s nose like gnarly crochet hooks. “They remind me a little bit of a weird sea anemone or something,” said Ryan, the curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

The dinosaur also has a medium-sized horn over its nose. The researchers suspect that it had horns over its eyes as well because its relatives, like Triceratops, boast prominent eye horns. The researchers hypothesize that the dinosaur’s lavish array of horns may have helped it attract mates, “just like modern birds, which have all these ornate plumages and long feathers and short feathers,” Ryan said. Another possibility is that the horns allowed males to demonstrate their strength and fitness to the opposite sex, just as big-horned sheep butt heads to determine who will get to breed with the female.

BookEnds on "The Death of the Midlist." Ever since I can remember, writers have been lamenting 'the death of the midlist.' Midlist is just that, neither best sellers nor abysmal failures. If that sounds blah, remember that this is where some of the finest writing falls. Writing that isn't mass appeal mind candy but is solid enough to generate a modest but loyal following.

Here's the truth as I see it where the midlist is concerned. Authors who languish in the midlist are not going to be given contract after contract just to remain midlist authors. That's not what the midlist is about (at least not these days). The midlist is a place for publishers to grow authors from. Its where great books go to grow. A publisher will always have a midlist of some sort because a publisher will always be buying new books from new authors and somewhere along the way someone is going to have numbers that aren't top selling numbers, but aren't at the bottom either. When those authors come along the publisher is going to look at those numbers to see which direction they are going and what can be done to boost that author, those books and those numbers into the top selling range.When rumors abound that a publisher is cutting the midlist it isn't mean that a publisher is taking out one kind of book over another, it means the publisher is making room for more. Have I ever told you that I'm an eternal optimist?

THE SEVEN-PETALED SHIELDis spiritually deep in a way I rarely see in fantasy.Ms. Rossdid an outstanding job in rendering a strong and quiet woman who takes comfort in books, and shows just how relevant such a heroine can be. (I could live without Zevaron, quite frankly, but I know he’s needed for the sequels.)

Bottom line? THE SEVEN-PETALED SHIELD is an exceptional epic fantasy, one that’s deep and broad in ways that I’ve rarely seen. More epic fantasy should be like this. Highly recommended!

Thursday, July 9, 2015

One of life’s aggravations is that all too often things
happen in their own time and not when I think they should. Writing progress,
weight loss, getting from hither to yon on the freeway, you name it.

Dog training definitely fits in this category. Sometimes
they “get it” right away; you can see the lights go on in their eyes. Then they’re
delighted that things make sense. It must be frustrating to them to not
understand what we are asking them to do and why we are unhappy with them. I
think that’s why positive (reward-based) training works so well, because it
provides a way for us to tell the dog that he did what we wanted. Anything
besides the desired behavior -> no cookie, try again. Desired behavior ->
cookie! Happy dog -> let’s do it again! We’ve paired something we want the
dog to do with something wonderful. Complex behaviors can be broken down into component
parts and chained, with lots repetition so they become one flowing behavior.

Behaviors that are naturally part of the dog’s repertoire
are easier to train, especially if the dog offers them just by being a dog.
This requires patience and precise timing of the reward. Since it’s highly
unlikely we’ll be able to offer a treat within a second of the desired
behavior, we use a marker, like a clicker or “Yes!” that the dog has come to
associate with the reward. Then we have to set up a training environment in
which the dog has the choice to offer the behavior we want, or something close
to it that can be then shaped. For example, if we are training “Down,” instead
of luring the dog with a treat, we bring the dog into an enclosed space (so
there are some limitations on what the dog can do) and wait. And wait. And
wait. Until the dog lies down, which is then rewarded. Rinse and repeat. Usually,
the dog will soon begin lying down many
times in rapid succession. Then we add the cue word. It may take longer for the
initial connection, but once that’s made, the dogs joyfully perform the
behavior. It’s fun to watch dogs that have been trained this way. At the
beginning of a new session, they run through all the behaviors they’ve ever been
rewarded for, watching carefully for the trainer’s response. Often they’ve
learned how to try new things, the doggie version of being creative.

Monday, July 6, 2015

My summer began in a rather inauspicious manner with a round
of bronchitis that lasted the better part of 3 weeks. Long story, the
highlights of which are a history of previous episodes, the discovery that I am
highly allergic to marijuana smoke, which lead to an asthma attack, which
promptly turned into bronchitis, and Deborah in her inimitable fashion had not
one but two relapses. Only one of which was my fault for doing too much too
soon. (I am now the proud possessor of the relevant inhalers.)

Enough whinging (British friends: is that the right word?)
One of the very, very few upsides of this illness was that I had to stay in
bed. A lot. After the initial phase of sleeping all day, I started reaching for
my pile of To Be Read books. Ah, books! How would we get through bed rest
without them? Here is a sampling of the stories that helped me through the
tedium:

Judith Tarr: Kingdom
of the Grail. I’d picked this up at Powell’s Books, that amazing bookstore
in Portland OR (see below), and then got distracted by other things. It’s
historical fantasy, with the emphasis on a wonderful blending of fantastical
elements. We all know the story of King Arthur and the Holy Grail, right? Tarr
sets her story not in King Arthur’s time but that of Charlemagne, with one of
the King’s Companions, Roland, as the hero. Add much Grail-centered magical
subterfuge, an ancient evil bent on acquiring the Grail, and a sorceress who
transcends time and culture. Oh, and a love story. Of course. Oh, and some very
nifty horses.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón: The
Shadow of the Wind. This gem was on my husband’s
TBR shelf, and I almost didn’t pick it up because of the mainstream-looking
cover. Imagine my delight when the story opens with a visit to “The Cemetery of
Forgotten Books,” where you get to choose one book, just one book from the
thousands of musty volumes, that you promise to keep alive, to make sure it
never disappears. For the narrator, that book is The Shadow of the Wind, by Julián Carax, and from the very first
paragraph, his life is never the same. Especially when a mysterious figure
appears, bent on destroying every copy of every book Carax wrote, all of which
were dismal publishing failures so they’re rare collector’s prizes anyway, not
to mention addictive. After a while, the story devolves into part mystery, part
suspense thriller, but that opening, which spoke so eloquently about the
magical power of books, had me hooked. It’s not exactly fantasy/science fiction,
but it’s definitely one for us book-loving fanatics.

Jo Walton: My Real
Children. An elderly woman who lives in a nursing home suffers from

confusion.
Does she have four children…or two plus a beloved stepchild? Is the door to the
right or the left? Is this dementia…or something else? Once her life was one
stream of events, until a single decision changed everything. This sounds like
your usual parallel-universe story, but the focus is on the intimate, everyday
lives and relationships of the women she becomes, executed with such nuanced
sensitivity that when you’re inside the story, it feels like it’s real history.
For all its domesticity, the book moves right along. I loved every page of it.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Writers find inspiration in many places: an image, a line of
dialog, a character, a question, or the burning desire to know more. Here, in a
fascinating peek into the imaginations of talented writers, some of the
contributors to Gifts of Darkover
share the origins of their stories. (This material appeared previously in individual interviews.) Available in trade paperback and ebook editions at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other venues.

Jane Bigelow (“Healing Pain”): What happens when someone
wants the best of both worlds, not just for themselves, but for their people?
Taniquel’s father might have lived if the people around him had been able to
combine Terran and Darkovan medical knowledge instead of each fearing and
discounting the other’s resources. Taniquel also must deal with a question that
transcends cultures: How do you rebel effectively against people who genuinely,
but mistakenly, believe that they have your best interests at heart? People
whom you respect, like, and even love?

Barb Caffrey (“A Problem of Punishment”): How did Fiona's
parents meet? What was her father Dominic, who I already knew had been a judge
before her, really like? And what had made Gorsali fall in love with him, and
he with her? A romantic story of a smart man and an accomplished woman against
the background of the Hellers appealed to me, especially since they fell in
love prior to the Terranan returning to Darkover and didn't have many
role models that would've helped them out. Now, as to why I felt Dominic, a
judge, could fall in love with a Renunciate? Dominic has seen it all in his
courtroom, and knows how to size up people quickly. Because of that, he has
fewer prejudices in certain respects than others, and he has far more respect
for the charter of the Renunciates than do most other men because he has far
more respect for the legal system. Because of that, I felt he could see her as
an equal partner in time...and that way, love could potentially grow (or at
least a strong attraction).

Margaret L. Carter (“Hidden Gifts”): The guidelines for
Darkover stories often mention “unusual use of laran.” I wanted to do something with one of the most unusual laran phenomena, teleportation, which (I
think) is shown in the novels only in the context of matrix work. What
experience might make a person unaware of the extent of her power desperate
enough to perform such an act on her own? For a protagonist, I chose one of my
favorite character types, the “Ugly Duckling” who discovers her “swan” traits
only when pushed to her limits. In a way, this story echoes my first Darkover
tale, “Her Own Blood” (in Free Amazons Of
Darkover), which also features a nedestra
heroine discovering her laran.

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